Five family members killed in Manhattan apartment fire

David Karp/APNeighbors point to an apartment on the top floor of a building in New York where five people died in an early morning fire Saturday.

NEW YORK - An early morning blaze trapped a family in their Manhattan apartment today, killing two adults and three young children who took refuge from the smoke in a bathtub and a back bedroom, fire officials said.

A 10-year-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition after the fire in a sixth-floor apartment in a public housing complex, Fire Department of New York spokesman Frank Gribbon said.

The dead included a 40-year-old man, a 34-year-old woman and three girls between the ages of 15 months and 7, officials said.

Firefighters worked quickly, shattering windows and extinguishing flames about 45 minutes after the blaze began at 6:30 a.m. in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. The fire started in the kitchen, right by the apartment's front door, fire officials said.

Fire officials said the adults tried to shelter their children in the bathroom and a back bedroom, probably after they were unable to get through the smoke.

"It looks like they were just trying to get out," department spokesman John Vuoso said. "They probably tried to head towards the door and realized they couldn't."

Firefighters found the woman, a 3-year-old girl and a 15-month-old girl in the bathroom; the woman and one of the girls was in a full bathtub of water and the other was underneath the bathroom sink, Vuoso said.

The man was in a back bedroom with the two other children, officials said.

The cause was under investigation.

Kathy Creer, who lives one floor below, said she knocked on the family's door after a neighbor told her about the blaze. "I was banging but I heard nothing, no noise," she said.

The hallway was hazy from the thick, black smoke, which was pouring from underneath the apartment door, she said.